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Beginning of Advent

This is the holiday season in the United States. Not only was last Thursday Thanksgiving Day, yesterday was the first day of Advent. Technically, today is Cyber Monday (the e-store response to Black Friday on the day after Thanksgiving), but we feel like we shouldn't count holidays that exist solely to sell stuff. Even Presidents' Day, whose main effect is a long weekend and lots of sales, at least exists to celebrate something other than 20% off at the furniture store.

Our Christmas tree. Yes, we realize we're a bit light on decorations.

So the next month will be filled with Christmas music and decorations and parties and special church services. While the climax of the holiday season is Christmas, it lasts through New Year's Day, with not a lot of work getting done in between. While for many people, this season is a time of celebration and re-connection with one's friends and family, others find it stressful and lonely, with old wounds exacerbated by memories of happier times. And for a lot of people, it's some of each.

We have two Christmas stories this year, exploring both aspects of this season, with a good dose of extraterrestrial strangeness for leavening. The first is Wendy Nikel's "The Stranger in the Manger," which will go up next week, on December 9th. The second is Madison McSweeney's "A Very Spaced-Out Christmas," which goes up on December 23rd (or, as Donald likes to call it, Christmas Eve Eve). Both of these stories are now available to our Patreon supporters of $3+ per month.

And be sure to read last month's story, Kat Otis's "Fools Pass Under," about the troll under London Bridge during the 1633 fire.

Reading Done, Stories Selected

We have now read all the stories from our July submission period, and selected the ones that we will publish during the first half of 2020. That also means that we have sent out all the acceptances and rejections. If you haven't heard from us, let us know. Thanks to everyone who has sent us stories, and we look forward to seeing what you send us in January!

We don't announce stories until they've been edited and contracted, but we wanted to drop some hints, in the form of a cryptic sentence: "In fields reformed through the work of fire, the moose are eaters of the weeds of knot."

You'll understand once you see the stories.

The 2018-19 Anthology

We're currently putting together an anthology of the stories we published on Mysterion in 2018-19. We have cover art, and we're working on the cover design, to get the anthology to our Patreon supporters of $5 or more per month before Christmas. We hope to make ebook and paperback versions of the anthology available for sale online in the early part of next year.